Letters
Letters to the editor, Jan. 15
TBO.com
Published: January 15, 2012
Positive stories are good tooPublished: January 15, 2012
It was a pleasure to wake up Saturday morning and read three positive stories in Hernando Today, two of which were on the front page. So much of what we see in the newspaper and other media is negative, sensationalized or trivial.
First was the article about the fine educators who were nominated for Teacher of the Year. These men and women all deserve the award. As a former teacher, I know how difficult the job is and how often it goes unrewarded and unappreciated. I hope that this article encourages more people to enter that profession.
Second, was the article about Eckerd Academy's decision to separate the boys from the girls at their camps for troubled youth. I congratulate Mr. Girdner for addressing a potential problem before it got out of hand. Catholic schools in the old days used to have separate high schools for girls and boys (I attended an all girls' high school for two years) and the students for the most part excelled scholastically and we had plenty of time to socialize at dances and outside of school. Many public schools are going to all-boys and all-girls classes and they're finding the plan very successful.
The third story was the one about Winonah Greene who just celebrated her 106th birthday. I want to be just like her when I grow up! Two things she said were very profound. One was about her pleasure in voting. Apathetic citizens take note! The other was the value she placed on her education.
Keep on reporting the positive and inspiring stories. They're also newsworthy.
Sarah Nachin
Spring Hill
Do you know what you are paying for?
We know how we have tried our best to stop unions from supporting the liberal political candidates. We stop state governments from collecting union dues and stripped the governmental unions of negotiating for better working conditions. In a sense, we have stopped the spread of funding of liberal ideas.
But now, are you aware that every time you click the gas pump handle that you are contributing to the political "Super Pacs" with those higher than usual gasoline prices? Corporate America is supporting our candidates so that the corporation can continue with their low to nonexistent taxes and the corporate executives' super bonuses. Corporations need those higher gasoline prices and other product price increases to cover those nondeductible political contributions to those "Super Pacs" while maintaining their huge cash coffers and doling out those outrageous executive bonuses for incompetent behavior.
So every time you click your gas pump handle, you are involuntarily contributing to those "Super Pacs" and depriving yourself and your children of the quality of life that those corporate executives so freely enjoy.
Fred Peters
Brooksville
The race for the GOP nomination
John Huntsman reached deeply into his psyche to reveal a moral imperative that urges that rights expressed in our founding documents require an interpretation which embraces all societal segments of our democracy to include those who are blessed with fortune and those who struggle to find some favor in life as he spoke during the New Hampshire debate Jan. 7, 2012, and moves on to South Carolina and Florida to carry his message forward.
Others in the GOP lineup chasing their desires to become the nominee for the party were strident in their vitriolic oppositions to women's rights, minority rights, gay rights and the rights of collective bargaining in the rank and file of government employees. The only right the GOP candidates urged was the right to work.
Huntsman may have sealed his fate with the GOP however he could run as an Independent to back his convictions. Ron Paul could also campaign as an Independent as his libertarian commitments speak only to the rights of liberty. Entitlements and other so-called rights are not in Ron Paul's lexicon.
The rest are alike in their conservative principles expressed in textbook platitudes as easy to recite that represent the great divide our two-party system brings to the American landscape. People standing on each side of the divide provide for the political persuasion in the legislative process and in the Administration sometimes in a tug of power plays that shape policy.
In 2012 the year of decision much depends on the growth of the economy and jobs. That's the message this year. Voters tend to forget the accomplishments of an incumbent. This is the year when you can also take bets on the outcome, another incentive to get people to vote their choice.
Deron Mikal
Brooksville